


Let Us Then See What Love Will Do

by ElectraRhodes



Category: Hannibal (TV), Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types
Genre: Beverly Katz is amazing, Gen, Ghosts?, Hannibal is a shit, Hannibal isn't always a shit but mostly is, Love, Unremittingly sad, if you love Bev and don't want to be sad don't read, or if you love Bev and think she's brilliant and are proud of her read but at risk of sadness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-12 04:28:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9055384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElectraRhodes/pseuds/ElectraRhodes
Summary: Beverly has two contrasting encounters with Hannibal Lecter. And one with Will. Will remembers the shape of love that Beverly had for him.  Let us lament the loss of a brave and loyal friend.Prequel can be found in chapter two of 'A shoulder to cry on' part 6 of the 'just one shot' series. Fourth chapter is also published as a stand alone. Because FEELS.This is NOT a part of the AU Dr Plushy Pants, Hannibal is not benevolent here in any shape or form





	1. What love requires

Beverly, it's a deadly force encounter, a psych-eval is mandatory. No arguments.' Jack holds up a hand as it looks like Beverly is about to argue. She'd shot the ersatz bitch of a mum in the Lost Boys case. The woman bled out before the EMT arrived, gulping on the outdoor tile, her traumatised son rushed away. No one had stepped in to stem the flow and she didn't speak again before her eyes turned glassy. Comfortless now as she had always felt before. Dying alone.

Will had looked almost out of her mind with the stress of it. Beverly knew he'd had a traumatic session with Dr Lecter after they'd tracked the straggling family down. The case had caused an argument in the team too. Zeller being even more of a prick than usual. Jimmy caught on the hop, the pain of his own family circumstances unfooting him. Beverly was reconciled to her own family dynamic like she was to most things. But she knew her coworkers were traumatised even before the final play out of events.

She knew she'd have to talk it out, but couldn't she just see to it with someone who wouldn't fuss. She looked at Jack 'ok, alright, god settle down. Not Alana or Chilton, not your guy either Jack. If it has to happen I'll take Lecter over the others, at least he's heard the background.'

So, that's why she's here now in Dr Lecter's Baltimore office. Will's talked a bit about his sessions and more about the psychiatrist. She knows Will feels ok with the doctor in a tense, twitchy Will kind of way. She also thinks Will is a bit in love too. She hasn't seen enough of the doctor to know if this is reciprocated or not, and what she has seen hasn't helped. 

He's quite hard to read and in the settings where she meets him it's all professional blankness and she's usually too involved to pay proper attention. So this is an opportunity for her to do a bit of reverse psychoanalysis too.

The office is ok, bit OTT but she'd anticipated that. Plaids and paisley, pocket squares and double windsors and three pieces much? The decor and the art is interesting, a picture of ears, some original architectural drawings, nice, a sculpture in bronze of a stag at bay. Oh, that's the one she had to get trace off after the Budge thing, interesting he's kept it. 

She looks at the doctor looking back at her, patience personified. He's a little like the kind of predator that waits. Waits for his prey to come to him. But that's a feature of psychiatry, the patients come to the therapist not the other way round. She can see how his profession suits him that way. They come to him and dismantle themselves in front of him, lay themselves bare. 

She can see how the blankness might help Will. He spends so much time in the company of stranger's minds it must be hard to know his own. With this emptiness she could see how Will might find it just that bit easier to come back to find just a little more of himself. Moving from the company of wolves to the bone arena of his own mind.

It's not Bev's thing, she likes things on the table. She's also not particularly interested into looking into an abyss. She knows the theory, eventually it'll look back at you. 

As they regard each other she notes the slightest of shifts in Hannibal's eyes. She could swear there's just a trace of amusement there, a flicker of something else too. Recognition maybe. She can almost taste the air, there's some kind of recalibration going on. She has been weighed in the balance and not found wanting. Dr Lecter suddenly finds her interesting. Maybe too much so.

The rest of the session goes more like she'd expected. She's shot people in the line of work before. She's knows she's reconciled to it happening occasionally. She's not too cool in her responses, she's honest but she's not falling apart. The question and response roll on. Hannibal (he's switched in her mind to Hannibal she notices), takes out the relevant forms and signs them once Beverly has written in her own details and has dated the paperwork too. 

Hannibal puts the papers aside, he'll share them with Jack in the next few days. Bev gets up, they're all professional again. She reaches out to shake his hand. As Hannibal takes hers he asks 

'what did you think would happen? Why did you shoot her?'

Bev shakes his hand and lets go, looks him full in the face

'I thought she was likely to shoot Will, he was the biggest threat, especially after he out his gun down'

'After?'

'Yes, because Will knew her. All of her. And was still standing in front of her, unarmed and vulnerable still speaking to the boy.'

Bev sees Hannibal's pupils contract just very slightly. Hannibal picks her hand up again and holds it between his own. 

'Then I have more reason to thank you, and to genuinely hope you will be well'

Ah thinks Bev, so it is mutual then.

She smiles 'you're welcome.' And this time the abyss smiles widely back, knowing he's been seen and lets her hand go. 

Later she'll remember this moment between them. Much later. Too late.


	2. Play to the end of love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beverly's final act of love and loyalty.

Even down here in the gloom she can feel the doctor's presence. Mostly he sits light to things, he's inscrutable, calm, confident, collected. Hannibal Lecter is the most collected person she knows. 

For a second she thinks about the terrifying dynamic between the doctor and Will. Will in the BSCHI. On the surface Will seems to be the exact opposite of the doctor, scattered, mildly hysterical, uncertain, emotions all out there. But underneath there's a strong moral certainty and an extraordinary clarity. The other stuff is just so much noise. This might be why they seem to be so drawn to each other. They are identically different. And it's truly terrifying in its outworking. 

They're all caught in the terrible gravitational pull between the two men. And right now she thinks she's got too close to it all and is going to be burnt.

She refocuses on her surroundings. She found the light switch and the slight illumination only makes everything else worse now the shadows are more pronounced. But Beverly is all bravery and wild compassion. She also trusts Will, it's been tested in the furnace, what with regurgitated ears and all. But if there's fault in there it's that her good Will is mad not bad. That's part of what is keeping her to her promise. If there is a plot and he's lost it she hopes she can help him find his way back.

Down in the doctor's Baltimore basement she can see that the abyss of Lecter's soul has found physical embodiment here. Every element underlines that there is something truly monstrous in the doctor's life, no, not in his life, it is his life. She's hit by a wash of fear then. Usually she's the smartest person in the room but she suddenly knows her own cleverness isn't going to be enough. Hannibal has calculated her own skills, knowledge and experience and found her weakness.

He would do. Its Will. It's his weakness too, but for identically different reasons. They both want to save him, one from himself and one for himself. Beverly can understand and appreciate this. She's also recognised a move that leaves her at zugzwang. All that remains is to play to the end.

She hears something behind her and wants to not believe it. Hannibal's at the hospital with Jack and Bella. She knows it. KNOWS it. 'Gotcha' she mutters, intent on her own next inexorable move. She's caught in that damn gravitational pull. And there's that noise again, but more importantly a change in the atmosphere, the pressure alters radically, she recognises it. There's a storm coming.

She draws her gun. If she's lucky she'll get a shot in, when it counts. When it counts you only need one. Her hands aren't shaking, but she knows she's scared.

At the other end of the hallway she can see Hannibal. Standing, legs akimbo, head slightly lowered. The effect of the light is to make him hard angles and terrible planes. And he's still in a three piece.

(God what she wouldn't give to be able to laugh about this with jimmy and Zeller later. All roughed up but triumphant and laughing. The three piece suit wearing Chesapeake Ripper caught by a combination of brains and brains, hers and Wills.)

For a moment neither of them moves. It reminds her of that moment in his office, when he let her see, and let her go. This time there'll be no letting go. No thanks. No understanding. Or it'll all be there but it won't make any difference at all. There's still a sliver of respect she thinks. And Beverly suddenly realises that by seeing and letting Hannibal (he's still Hannibal for god's sake). By letting him know that she's seen him time and again, that he has calculated for this, has anticipated that it would come to this. She was too interesting and too interested. Hannibal saw her too, the abyss did look back.

He darts to one side, turns out the light and throws himself back into a side room. She gets off a shot. She so wants for it to have counted. Desperately, hopelessly, with so many regrets, should have told Alana what she thought of her, should have encouraged Brian to risk it on Jimmy, should have told Jimmy too. Should have been nicer to her sister. Should have listened to Will, maybe he is mad but knows enough about bad, she should have. All the oughts, shoulds, wishes climbing up her throat grappling with her heart.

When she's grabbed by the neck from behind she knows she missed. Reflexively she pulls the trigger until her clip is empty. She'll struggle though it will make no difference. She knows too that the ripper will display her body. It'll be extraordinary and Will will see the art, and she respects that in him, the things he can see. 

But she hopes he'll see her heart too. The last few beats are for Will alone. This is her gift of love to him, fierce and broken. She thinks he'd understand that. It's what he has for Hannibal despite everything and maybe what Hannibal has too. She's simply got in the way of it. Maybe that moment in a Lecter's office was both a thank you and a warning?

It's her last incomplete thought.

Played to the...


	3. Love lies bleeding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beverly may have died but she still has things to say.

'So, I played it right to the end and here I am Will. I know you're seeing the evidence, seeing what happened, seeing it unwind until I'm all back in once piece. I know it's beautiful, I'm beautiful in the most terrible of ways. You'll dream about this won't you? In the dark gripping choke-hold of the night. Not always, we all jostle for space in there, don't we, I know. I've met them all now. 

I hate that you get to see me like this. But I'm glad too. You need to know how much he feels. How very very much. His is not a small love, it's operatic in its intensity. What ever he feels he feels it so all so very much, it sometimes gets the better of him, gets bigger than him. He's all about control, maybe except where you are concerned, so you need to know what he's capable of. 

And I know that even when you know, when you see, you'll still be conflicted. Love calls to love doesn't it? Even if it's the worst kind, or the best kind, or all sorts of fucked up twisted kinds. I think I see now how you love him, why you do. And he loves you so much he didn't kill you. It'll hurt worse when you realise that, and you'll love him for it. I expect he won't kill you again and again.

He'll kill other people though. If they're rude, or inconvenient, or they do something too accidentally close. That patient of his? Hannibal killed him. Cassie Boyle, Hannibal. Marissa Schurr, Hannibal. Even Garrett Jacob Hobbs, sure you pulled the trigger but Hannibal killed him. And the angel guy, who do you think strung him up? And the jenga on the beach, he needed help too. Hannibal, Hannibal, Hannibal.

At some point you're going to find out he didn't kill Abigail. He's got something worse in mind for her - she's your reward, or your punishment. It just depends on your choices. Whether you stay both interesting and true. And let suffering be your redemption. It isn't by the way. It's just pain. And more pain. Love though. Love is redemptive, so maybe he thinks they're both the same thing. And you do suffer so beautifully.

Be kind to Jimmy and Brian. I know Zeller is a jerk and Jimmy depends on the gin too much, but this will slay them. Please be kind. Kick Jack for me. Not just because Hannibal should have been at the fucking hospital with him and Bella but because none of this would have been necessary if he'd had the decency to believe you.

And he should have. I know Hannibal gave him cause to doubt. But couldn't he just have listened a tiny bit? So I'm a bit pissed at him. I'm not really pissed at you. You warned me. And after all, you were, sorry are, in fucking prison. The good news is that is going to come out alright. The bad news is that Hannibal is going to fuck Alana.

Yeah. I know. Hurts me too. She's my friend. I hoped it might be more. I know you did too. Well in this version of the fairy tale the monster gets the princess. Rubbish ending isn't it? I can't see much beyond that. I'm not sure how this works anyway, how much of this you'll get from me. No one tells you the rules here. It just sort of unfurls. And I can see only so far ahead.

The feelings go a bit further. So I know there's sorrow, and betrayal, grief and lust and a whole sack full of other things ahead. Love too. But I don't entirely know which emotion is from whom. And sometimes what one person feels as sorrow isn't what someone else feels. 

I'll be selfish and say I hope you're regretting my death. I wanted to be your friend Will. More than I was. I wanted to be able to unwrite some of the past, give us both new futures. So, I'm sorry too. For you and about you. I had just the start of a fragile kind of brittle beating heart full of love for you. We'd have made good friends. We made a good start. 

So, I'm also sorry I let you down. I want my death to not be a waste. But it probably is. It tells you things you already know. And the others are just too blind. None so blind as those who won't see. Oh Will, oh Will. I died. I died. He killed me. And I died. Don't let Freddie put me out there. Not like this. Somehow I know my ending is going to be your beginning. It scares me. 

This is what I did for love Will. What will you do?


	4. This fractured heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes the teacup is repaired but will always be broken.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also published as a stand alone, but serves as the fourth chapter here. Because. Damn. Beverly Katz!

Hannibal looks over at Will. He has been looking downcast for the last day or two. Sorrowful. It's surprising. The sad, bitter, resentful, Will Graham is almost entirely gone. But today? There is something bothering him.

'Will, is there anything I can do? You seem a little despondent. I thought we might go out tonight, for a meal? Would you like that?'

'What? Oh. I'm ok thanks. That's a nice idea. Could we do it tomorrow maybe. That'd be good. Thanks Hannibal.'

Will carries on reading a book on kintsukori that he picked up in an English Language bookshop in Kobe just a few days ago. He bought some urushi paste yesterday. Hannibal smiles slightly to himself, maybe Will is thinking about mending some teacups. If so it's a sweet gesture. Perhaps something in mind for Valentine's Day. It is celebrated twice in Japan, a day for women to give gifts and a day for men.

That night Will is quiet still. He kisses Hannibal with tenderness and gentle passion; holds Hannibal lightly and goes to sleep. Hannibal is mildly surprised. He can't remember when they didn't last have sex at the end of the day.

In the morning Will is gone for some time and Hannibal is a little concerned. He comes back still quiet. Reflective maybe. Hannibal frowns to himself. Hopefully they will have an enjoyable evening together, Hannibal has found a restaurant that looks acceptable and is celebrating Valentine's Day.

It's a lovely, enjoyable, intimate evening full of conversation, memory making, laughter, a good meal, and some entertaining Valentine themed decoration and effort by the staff of the restaurant. They are both amused. Back in the hotel their night is passionate and full of what Hannibal still considers to be the most breathtaking sex.

The next day is Valentine's Day proper. Hannibal has been restrained. Just some very nice cufflinks and a tie pin. As well as elaborate breakfast in bed. Will it turns out has for him a lovely yukata, and clearly prepared for breakfast sex. Hannibal is just a little surprised it's not a mended tea cup. 

After lunch Will says he is going for a walk. Back in an hour or so. Hannibal watches him depart with some surprise. He'd thought maybe they would do something together. He pauses. And then rises, pulls on an overcoat and follows Will out into the wet Kyoto afternoon.

Will walks for about ten minutes and then turns into grounds of the famous pagoda. It seems there's something of a Valentine's Day offering at one of the smaller shrines, like the padlocks on the bridge in Paris, or the kisses on Oscar Wilde's tomb, a spontaneous demonstration of love.

Will kneels down and places something on the ground and then rises and looks down at it. He puts something in the offering box and stands, head bowed, for a few minutes. Hannibal wonders if he is crying. 

After a short time has passed Will makes a shallow bow and walks away, hands stuffed into his pockets. Checking to make sure Will hasn't turned back, Hannibal kneels beside the shrine, and sees a small mended cup. Carefully he lifts it, the paste may not be quite dry. He sees that as well as the golden mend in the fracture Will has used gold ink to write a few lines.

"For Beverly, I never told you I loved you. I should have. It was Valentine's Day when I knew you loved me. When you sacrificed everything to save me. I still love you, I won't forget."

Hannibal replaces it carefully. Beverly Katz, it must be what, five years now? A worthy opponent. Possibly the only person he ever really truly regretted killing. He understands Will's heartfelt sorrow now, one of many conflicting emotions that love pulls out of us, shapes us, can break or make of us. Has made Will.

His Will. With a heart full of love for Hannibal now, who has given up so much to be with him. Everything and everyone. And though he craves it all, covets it, Hannibal thinks that he won't begrudge the fractured piece that belongs to Beverly Katz.

**Author's Note:**

> I love Beverly Katz. I am impressed by everything about her. When she died in season 2 I was so angry. It's still the part I return to when I need to remember what Hannibal is capable of at his worst. Even more than whatever he did to everyone else, even Abigail, even Will.


End file.
